4 Seasons Resort Tokyo at Otemachi assessment

Standout options

• Spacious and fantastically designed rooms that evoke a way of place … however with up to date sensibilities
• Gorgeous public areas that embody a foyer with a number of the greatest views in Tokyo and a cocktail lounge that feels each occurring and unique
• One of many metropolis’s greatest spas, the place remedies incorporate high-end Valmont and Omorovicza merchandise
• Employees members who know every visitor by identify inside an hour of check-in and who proffer (glorious) customized ideas for issues to do (and locations to eat) across the metropolis

Drawbacks

• The situation is central and simply accessible, however its setting within the monetary district can really feel relatively quiet within the night and on weekends.
• These trying to pattern conventional Japanese delicacies won’t discover it on the resort’s primary eating places, which skew extra European.
• The excessive worth level shall be past many vacationers, however these capable of splurge ought to think about a keep.

The vibe

Perched on a number of high flooring of a skyscraper overlooking Tokyo’s Imperial Palace grounds, the 4 Seasons Resort Tokyo at Otemachi exudes an aura of rarefication and offers a welcome respite from the busy metropolis streets and subway stations beneath.

Stepping out of the elevators into the Thirty ninth-floor foyer, the very first thing that catches the attention is a dramatic water characteristic that appears to tug the surface atmosphere indoors and displays the altering mild all through the day.

Simply past, on the all-day cafe and restaurant known as the Lounge, you would possibly spot enterprise vacationers speaking offers over espresso or cocktails throughout the week or well-heeled locals stopping in with buddies or household on the weekend for particular events like a winter strawberry afternoon tea.

Within the night, the cocktail bar, Virtu, comes alive with {couples} perusing the menu of handcrafted cocktails, practically every impressed by a legend or fairy story, whereas Michelin-starred Est is the place to impress both a colleague or a date with a dinner of French-inspired dishes created with fastidiously chosen seasonal Japanese components.

Regardless of why you are right here, depend on the pleasant employees to offer heat however polished service with the clear intent to make your keep as snug and memorable as doable with every interplay.

Do not forget to lookup from the reception desk to admire the sun-inspired cupola, whose inside is adorned with the Japanese characters for the seasons created in free-form calligraphy by artist Nobuko Kawahara. Just under, an suave floral show primarily based on the standard Japanese artwork of flower association creates a pure focus for the area.

The room

My 4 Seasons Suite — Imperial Backyard View had, true to its identify, an uninterrupted panorama to the west of the Imperial Palace grounds and, on the winter mornings of my keep, a crystal-clear vista all the best way to a snow-cowled Mount Fuji.

At over 800 sq. toes, there was numerous floor to cowl. To the best of the entry lobby was a powder room, whereas to the left was the big closet with area for baggage, hanging garments and loads of drawers, together with the protected.

The in any other case open ground plan included each a small lounge and the bed room with washi-paper and wooden-latticed sliding doorways main into the lavatory, all envisioned by architectural agency Denniston’s lead designer, Jean-Michel Gathy.

The lounge comprised a pillow-populated sofa and armchair together with a small desk and chair that doubled as a workspace due to a console with plugs and shops galore. The palette was principally metal- and mineral-toned with accents of ochre, gold and lapis lazuli. Above all of it, on the wall, fossil-like items of artwork had been fastidiously affixed to evoke a way of transient magnificence.

The minibar, in the meantime, held a collection of snacks like nuts spiced with black pepper and honey together with a number of Japanese-produced spirits, together with Keys & Bricks vodka and Sakurao gin, a Nespresso espresso maker and kettle and Narumi china with which to take pleasure in sizzling drinks.

Backed by an ornamental wall with a print by artist Namiko Kitaura resembling a breeze-blown silk scarf and going through the wall of home windows, the king-size mattress was wearing sateen sheets with the model’s brand embroidered into the shams.

To both aspect was a panel of controls for the lights and curtains together with nightstands — a Bluetooth speaker and the telephone on one aspect, and a pill for benefiting from the resort’s facilities on the opposite. The lengthy, low desk set towards the home windows held vases with flowers and a big flat-screen tv.

The toilet had burnished black stone flooring and counters, with partitions clad in attractively striated grey limestone. Two sinks punctuated the room-length self-importance counter, anchored alongside a mirrored wall, and had been provisioned with Diptyque hand cleaning soap and lotion.

There have been additionally Diptyque merchandise ready within the walk-in bathe, which had each an overhead and a wall-mounted handheld showerhead. The separate water closet held a Toto rest room with a panel of controls for varied capabilities.

The standout characteristic, nevertheless, needed to be the deep soaking tub close to the window … all the higher for soaking within the views whilst you soaked in heat waters with offered yuzu-scented tub salts.

Food and drinks

The 4 Seasons Resort Tokyo at Otemachi is house to 4 eating places and bars, all with phenomenal views due to their location on the Thirty ninth ground.

The Lounge is adjoining to the reception space and the elevators and is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Visitors can tuck right into a gamut of worldwide fare like a smoked salmon and quinoa salad ($21), a wagyu cheeseburger ($33) and Tokyo shoyu ramen ($26) in addition to plentiful petits fours and cookies for takeaway. The Lounge additionally serves the resort’s signature afternoon tea ($59-$79 per particular person), which may range seasonally.

Pigneto, the resort’s all-day restaurant, is situated simply previous the Lounge and serves a lavish breakfast unfold earlier than transitioning into an Italian eatery for lunch and dinner. Continental breakfast ($36 per particular person) features a collection of chilly objects from the buffet, together with recent fruit, every day altering pastries like a seeded croissant full of candy purple bean paste and varied pickled greens over steamed rice.

The total breakfast ($45 per particular person), in the meantime, contains each hot and cold buffet choices in addition to some a la carte dishes like avocado eggs Benedict or recent grilled fish of the day with steamed rice and miso soup.

The Italian lunch and dinner menus present acquainted choices like fried calamari with aioli ($25); linguine with prawns, zucchini and tomato ($31); and quite a lot of handmade pizzas ($19-$41); in addition to desserts like home made tiramisu ($15) and gelato ($14).

Meander throughout the reception space and thru a book- and curio-lined hall to get to the resort’s primary cocktail bar, Virtu, and the Michelin one-starred restaurant, Est.

Virtu epitomizes a cosmopolitan resort watering gap, with moody lighting, loads of intimate cubicles and window seats, a vigorous bar with bottles stretching to the ceiling and a counter the place the mixologists theatrically assemble libations impressed by each legends and fairy tales.

Topped by a rose-shaped ice dice long-established from cranberry and ginger, La Belle et la Bete (Magnificence and the Beast) is a heady concoction of Hoji tea-infused vodka and liqueur with fragrant bitters and ginger beer ($22). The Smoked Ume Original mixes Michter’s bourbon, Japanese whiskey and bitter plum-infused brandy to offer some chew, completed with mellow smoked hinoki bitters after which smoked with cherry wooden earlier than a garnish of bitter plum, cherry and orange peel ($23).

Drink up, then head subsequent door to elegant Est, the place the eating room is hushed however vigorous, creating an atmosphere without delay intimate but energetic by which company can savor chef Guillaume Bracaval’s 10-course up to date French tasting menus composed of hyper-seasonal (there are apparently 72 seasons!) Japanese components, 95% of which come from throughout the nation ($200 per particular person).

Your meal would possibly begin with a fluffy beignet full of Swiss chard and white cheese and a chew of Spanish mackerel cured with salt and sugar, then garnished with a kumquat and inexperienced pepper crust.

The array of tastes to return contains delicacies like succulent Hokkaido abalone in beurre blanc and Jerusalem artichoke puree with tarragon and butter completed with a quenelle of briny French caviar. Count on a dish centered round a juicy filet of fish, akin to seabass from the coast of Kyushu, over cauliflower puree with shiitake and maitake mushrooms, however depart room for the unctuous filet of Hokkaido wagyu beef with a tangy yuzu-kosho crust.

You are virtually to the end line, however not earlier than candy bites by pastry chef Michele Abbatemarco, like chestnut mousse and vanilla-bean ice cream with mizkan citrus gelee and a smattering of mignardises made with candies of various provenance and cacao focus.

Earlier than you balk, decide to the wine pairing, if solely to pattern hard-to-find bottles, together with a bespoke sauvignon blanc from the Kyoto prefecture made only for the restaurant and an earthy Kusonoki pinot noir from Nagano.

Facilities and repair

Throughout from reception on the Thirty ninth ground, the 4 Seasons Resort Tokyo at Otemachi has a wellness heart with a spa, fitness center and kitted-out locker rooms.

Visitors enter via a hushed, dim hall the place varied merchandise starting from teas and skincare merchandise to jewellery, exercise garments and pajamas are on show.

When you’re coming for a therapy, you will be requested to fill out an data sheet whereas having fun with a cup of sizzling or chilly tea (your selection).

Prepare for the spa with a exercise within the light-filled fitness center, taking within the surrounding skyscrapers as you pump iron on the LifeFitness weight machines or get some cardio in on the ellipticals or treadmills. Perk up with an espresso or cup of tea, or just seize a towel and bottle of water from the offered facilities.

After, head to the locker room for a rinse in one of many bathe suites, then don your bathing swimsuit and seize one of many cushioned daybeds that encompass the black-tiled pool with its reflective metallic backside as you ponder the Tokyo skyline some extra.

Again within the locker room, use one of many conventional open seated showers to wash your self as clear as doable earlier than wallowing within the sizzling waters of the window-side ofuro, or conventional soaking tub.

After you modify right into a gown and slippers within the locker room, your therapist will escort you to one of many 5 therapy rooms, which have blond wooden flooring and paneling plus monumental home windows so you may both have mild streaming in or ask for the shades to be lowered for a extra soporific setting. With the clang of a standard spherical orin bell, your expertise will start.

Varied skincare remedies incorporate well-known worldwide manufacturers, akin to a Valmont “Redefinition Facial” to erase these nice traces introduced on by jet lag and journey (75 minutes, $246); and an “Omorovicza Blue Diamond Facial” that energizes the pores and skin with peptides earlier than a copper and lactic acid peel completed with a soothing rose-scented masks (90 minutes, $353). The signature “Yakusugi Forest Renewal” physique therapy incorporates an exfoliating scrub and moisturizing physique oil produced from historic cypresses from the island of Yakushima that can slough away impurities after which evoke a meditative way of thinking (120 minutes, $389).

As you would possibly count on at such a high-end resort, the employees’s consideration to element on the 4 Seasons Resort Tokyo at Otemachi is virtually flawless, mixing 4 Seasons’ well-known worldwide service requirements with conventional Japanese hospitality.

The concierges shall be comfortable to do all the things from securing you tickets to a sold-out artwork exhibition to recommending the fanciest sushi restaurant in Ginza (or a spot for affordable and engaging gyoza in Shinjuku). Listening to that you must head to Tokyo station, the bell desk would possibly simply give you the resort automotive for the fast journey, complimentary.

Wait employees on the varied bars and eating places will know you by identify as quickly as you might have checked in for a reservation (or simply dropped by for breakfast) and may have your favourite espresso or cocktail order prepared for you in your second go to. They can even patiently stroll you thru any particular dishes or flavors on the menu or just cease by to ask about your day as you admire the view of Mount Fuji within the distance. It is like having your very personal polished however genial hometown squad at your beck and name for something you would possibly require.

Out and about

Though the encompassing neighborhood is a monetary district that will get busy by day however tends to empty out by evening, the 4 Seasons Resort Tokyo at Otemachi sits atop the sprawling Otemachi subway station, the place yow will discover all the things from comfort shops and informal izakayas to upscale sushi counters and bustling cafes.

You possibly can merely stroll throughout the road to discover the Imperial Gardens if the climate is sweet or hop on the metro to succeed in different neighborhoods, together with Asakusa, Shinjuku or Shibuya, in 20-Half-hour. Ginza, with its fancy style boutiques, is only a 10-minute drive away.

Accessibility

The 4 Seasons Resort Tokyo at Otemachi has wheelchair-accessible parking and an accessible entrance through its street-level driveway, in addition to a ground-floor entrance that’s accessible to wheelchairs with no steps (and check out the lacquer box-inspired lighting scheme and decor whilst you’re down there).

There are additionally lower-height buttons within the elevators, that are vast sufficient to accommodate wheelchairs, as are the visitor room flooring’ hallways.

The general public areas, eating places and bars on the Thirty ninth ground are all accessible for wheelchair customers, with no stairs concerned. Nevertheless, moving into the pool or sizzling tub requires the usage of stairs, and there’s no chairlift. The identical is true of the ofuros within the locker rooms.

The resort has a single wheelchair-accessible Superior Metropolis View room with wider areas to accommodate a chair, a lowered toilet counter, a roll-in bathe and bathroom seize bars. Listening to-impaired company may request visible notifications for the door and alarm clock.

Trying out

The 4 Seasons Resort Tokyo at Otemachi seamlessly melds conventional Japanese components, together with ikebana floral shows and calligraphy-inspired designs, with a up to date sense of hospitality. It principally seems like Tokyo writ small right into a resort expertise that can depart you feeling each cosseted in consolation and but uncovered to the enjoyment of the Japanese capital.

Its central location, which is well accessible by public transportation, makes it a superb selection for each leisure and enterprise vacationers. And whereas its phenomenal wellness services, together with a class-act fitness center, a calming pool and a halcyon spa, will assist vacationers beat any lingering jet lag, the fanciful cocktails at Virtu and memorable dishes at Est (together with the banter of the bartenders and servers) will make you are feeling proper at house, regardless of how removed from house you truly are.

Associated studying: